The Zohar tells us about those who are jealous for the name of God. Pinchas, before his action, was not worthy of the reward he received after he was ‘jealous’ for God. He merited eternal and supernal priesthood, which means immortality.

The word ‘jealous’ is common for most people but spiritual people know that it is one of the worst traits a person could have.

What is the spiritual meaning of ‘jealousy’?

It is very important to understand that the translation of any word of the Torah limits its meaning and takes away from the spiritual value. The most value comes from the consciousness of the reader. This is the reason why I always bring the Hebrew source next to the translation.

The Hebrew word for ‘jealous’ is ‘קנא’ and the source in the Torah is found in the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20:4 ” כִּי אָנֹכִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, אֵל
קַנָּא–פֹּקֵד עֲו‍ֹן אָבֹת עַל-בָּנִים עַל-שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל-רִבֵּעִים, לְשֹׂנְאָי”
“for I YHVH thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate (go different way) Me;”

The ‘jealousy’ of God is related to our iniquities. The true meaning of the word is ‘cleanse’.
The numerical value of קנא is 151 as the word מקוה, ‘Mikveh’ that is a ritual pool of water that helps us with spiritual cleansing. Another reference to the meaning of ‘cleansing’ is in the portion of Pinchas that we just began to study.

” פִּינְחָס בֶּן-אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן-אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן, הֵשִׁיב אֶת-חֲמָתִי מֵעַל בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל,
בְּקַנְאוֹ אֶת-קִנְאָתִי, בְּתוֹכָם; וְלֹא-כִלִּיתִי אֶת-בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, בְּקִנְאָתִי.”
“‘Pinchas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was very jealous for My sake among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in My jealousy.”.

God’s ‘jealousy’, that is the power of cleansing, removed 24000 people in the process. Pinchas stopped the negativity and the process of cleansing was done by God so the Israelites were saved.

When we cleanse our souls and help others do the same, we implement the effect of jealousy for the name of God. It was given to us as a complete divine system to connect to it with purity because otherwise it shows us the judgment side of it, which is in other words, the Tikkun process.

King David asks God to keep his soul level of Nefesh ‘נפש’ and save it because he trusts him. The Zohar explains that the regular form of the word to keep, ‘שמר’ was changed and the letter ה was added to it to make it שמרה. The ה is the last letter of the YHVH name that represents Malchut and we can use it to protect ourselves from judgments.

Pinchas was jealous for the name and his action kept the name away from the negativity of the people that disconnected the ו Vav from the ה H. This event is recorded in the Torah with a split Vav, in the portion of Pinchas, in the word שלום ‘peace’ that also has the meaning of completion. Pinchas, with his jealousy, cleansed the negativity and removed judgment from the Isarelites.

The Zohar tells us that the souls who don’t connect and earn the protection of the name are escorted by evil angels after their death into harsh cleansing process. In worst cases, their souls may not even be accepted in hell (cleansing system) and stay between the physical and spiritual worlds. They go through endless sufferings and sometimes they find ‘refuge’ in bodies of negative people or those who made negative actions.re